Farm Bureau annual meeting

The Illinois Farm Bureau is home to a wealth of fond and familiar traditions, first and foremost being the promotion and support of agricultural and farming traditions.
Yet, for many Illinois farmers, the tradition that means the most is the grassroots, member-driven decision making that stems from the IFB’s annual meeting. Each year, Illinois farmers gather during the first week of December to meet, discuss issues facing agriculture and set policy for the coming year.
This year, more than 2,100 IFB members and guests gathered on Dec. 3-6 in Chicago for the annual meeting. During that gathering, attendees recognized counties for program awards. Service awards were presented to members and friends of IFB. Members also had the opportunity to listen to keynote speeches featuring IFB President Philip Nelson and Richard Picciotto, the last and highest-ranking firefighter to escape the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
In addition to featured speeches, attendees also heard comments offered by some of Illinois’ elected officials. Speaking to members this year were Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. Both senators took questions from the audience and media on topics including estate tax, potential regulations, improvements to the locks and dams system in Illinois, balancing the federal budget and the 2012 farm bill.
Most importantly, participants also continued the tradition of steering the organization’s policy. On Monday, Dec. 5, delegates had a chance to conduct the necessary business to prepare for the coming year and the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting.
This year’s delegate session had several highlights, but the main focus was the business climate in Illinois and the concerns delegates had over the state of the Illinois budget and complications to business and industry, said Mark Gebhards, IFB executive director of governmental affairs and commodities.
“The delegates were very clear about their concerns for the state,” Gebhards said. “In fact, in their sense of the delegate body resolution, they called upon the Illinois General Assembly to work toward creating a positive business climate.”
Delegates also debated wind energy, as well as a resolution calling for the implementation of statewide regulations for wind farms.
Added Gebhards: “Delegates also discussed the livestock industry and their concern in terms of the current regulatory environment. What we’ve seen lately when it comes to enforcement action with livestock facilities is a movement to require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit when, in some cases, the farms are not yet populated with livestock.”
Gebhards said that delegates reiterated that if there are no livestock on the farm, no NPDES permit should be required. They also reinforced their desire to keep premise registration for livestock operations voluntary.
Surprisingly, the 2012 farm bill received the least amount of debate when it came to farm policy. However, Gebhards said that the amount of debate does not signal a lack of interest in farm policy or that members aren’t concerned with the 2012 farm bill.
“Our Farm Policy Task Force put forth their recommendations, so the work has already been done,” Gebhards said. “Congress wanted to have the super committee put forward a bill, but that didn’t happen. So, we’re going to go through a more traditional process to develop a bill and the delegate body stayed with the recommendations that we’ve already worked on. Crop insurance is still the highest priority, followed by a revenue-based safety net.”
In the end, the policies and resolutions set at the IFB’s annual meeting will move on again. This time, they’ll go with several Illinois delegates to Hawaii in January 2012 for the AFBF annual meeting. There, Illinois delegates will discuss, with Farm Bureau members from across the country, the resolutions approved in Illinois.
“Our farm policy discussions will go on to the American Farm Bureau Federation,” Gebhards said. “And there will be some regional differences that exist when it comes to the 2012 farm bill. But, the fact is, now we are going to go through this process of creating a farm bill and that opens the debate issues again for the delegates at the AFBF annual meeting or in Congress as they go through the agricultural committee hearings.”
Finally, in their last order of business, delegates selected officers to lead the organization for the next two years. Having already served eight years as president of the IFB, Philip Nelson was elected to his fifth two-year term as president. Vice President Rich Guebert Jr. also was elected to his fifth two-year term.